In 525, Dionysius prepared a table of the future dates of Easter and a set of "arguments" explaining their calculation on his own initiative, not at the request of Pope John.

In either case, Dionysius' method had actually been used by the Church of Alexandria (but not by the Church of Rome) at least as early as 311, and probably began during the first decade of the fourth century, its dates naturally being given in the Alexandrian calendar.

In addition, Dionysius proposed to base the year numbering from the incarnation of Jesus Christ instead of from the accession of Roman Emperor Diocletian (September 29, 284), as was the custom since the council of Nicea (325).

Dionysius calculated Christ's incarnation as March 753 AUC and his birth as December 25, 754 ab urbe condita (from the founding of Rome).

DionysiusExiguus apparently proposed his year numbering system in a letter to a Bishop Petronius.

Cassiodorus, however, calls him simply "monk", while Bede calls him "abbot." But as it was not unusual to apply the latter term to distinguished monks who were not heads of their houses, it is uncertain whether Dionysius was abbot in fact or only by courtesy.

Dionysius did good service to his contemporaries by his translations of many Greek works into Latin; and by these translations some works, the originals of which have perished, have been handed down to us.

His friend Cassiodorus depicts in glowing terms the character of Dionysius as a saintly ascetic, and praises his wisdom and simplicity, his accomplishments and his lowly-mindedness, his power of eloquent speech and his capacity of silence.

An easy search mechanism produced a thorough article on DionysiusExiguus, which examines his contribution to cannon law in the history of Christianity and his role in producing the first Christian era calendar.

A cross reference to a section entitled "General Chronology" explains various historical calendars and specifically the role of DionysiusExiguus and the reforms of Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century.

DionysiusExiguus (in English known as Denis the Little) was a monk from Scythia, he was a canon in the Roman curia, and his assignment was to prepare calculations of the dates of Easter.

The 21st Century and the Third Millennium(Site not responding. Last check: )

This is illustrated by the adoption of the birth of Christ as the initial epoch of the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Dionysius followed previous precedent by extending an existing table (by Cyrillus) covering the period 228-247, reckoned from the beginning of the reign of Emperor Diocletian.

Scaliger knew that the year of Christ's birth (as determined by DionysiusExiguus) was characterized by the number 9 of the solar cycle, by Golden Number 1, and by number 3 of the indiction cycle, or (9,1,3).

The years of Dionysius were used by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731), and due to Bede's great influence their use spread rapidly during the Middle Ages, and are still used by the modern Gregorian calendar.

The beginning of Dionysius' year was probably 25 March, the anniversary of the Incarnation ever since 25 December, nine months later, was chosen as the Nativity in the fourth century.

In either case, Dionysius' method had actually been used by the Church of Alexandria at least as early as 311, and probably began during the first decade of the fourth century, its dates naturally being given in the Alexandrian calendar.

DionysiusExiguus (see section 2) obtained his Easter table (which concerns the years 532 up to and including 626) by extrapolation from the Easter table attributed to Kyrillos.

DionysiusExiguus’ “nulla” and Beda Venerabilis’ “nullae” in their columns of epacts are typical examples of precursors of the number zero, they stand for “no epacts”, which boils down to ‘nothing’, which term is, in contrast to the number zero, no mathematical concept.

DionysiusExiguus did not worry about that, because he did not at all need those nonpositive numbers for the setting up of his incomplete era (which actually was used by him only for the benefit of his easter table), and Beda Venerabilis too could manage very well without these numbers.

DionysiusExiguus in his " LIBER DE PASCHATE " indicates, he made a new calculation of the Easter data.

According to DionysiusExiguus, the cycle created by Cyrill ended in the Diokletian Year 247 (531CE) DionysiusExiguus synchronized the subsequent year with of his new 532 year lasting lunisolar Easter cycle and so created a new yearly counting.

It is maintained that DionysiusExiguus, by incorporating these three factors, precalculated the planet conjunction of May 2000 with the help of planet boards and determined the year 1 A.D. exactly 1999 years before it and thus linked "Platonic Year" with "Greatest Year".

As Dionysius explained to Petronius, he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians, and instead he proposed to number years from the incarnation of Jesus Christ, starting his new 95-year table with the year 532.

However, Dionysius used a modified version of the Alexandrian method, and does not mention Victorius or the 532-year cycle.

However it is not clear where Dionysius puts the beginning of the year: besides January 1, also March 1, Christmas day (December 25), Easter day, and the date of the vernal equinox (March 21 or even March 25) are "styles" that have been used at one time.

Dionysius started marking time in the era referred to as Anno Domini (the year of our Lord), or A.D. for short, beginning in what he believed to be the year Jesus was born.

Now, where many people get confused is that they take the over-simplified view that because the move from the year 1999 to the year 2000 involves moving into a "new set of thousands" that it must mean that it is the start of the new millennium.

DionysiusExiguus developed his calendar based on what he believed to be a significant point in time for Christianity.